Wednesday, November 13, 2013

If not just your house but your entire city is on wheels, you might bean architect

Remember the Jeff Foxworthy routine, "If your richest relative invites you over to his new home to help him remove the wheels... you might be a redneck?"

Well, some architect in Madrid -- which is near Spain or Australia or California or something -- have come up with the idea of putting an entire city on wheels. Manuel Dominguez calls it a Very Large Structure. Probably because it's a structure that's very large. Maybe he calls it "Estructura Muy Grande." Maybe not. I don't know. If anybody knows Mr. Dominguez -- or SeƱor Dominguez -- give him a call and see.
The structure stretches the length of five football fields and is nearly 600 feet tall, perched on caterpillar-like legs that run along a track. In Dominguez’s vision, the city would follow a schedule throughout the year, traveling to different places based on the needs of the region. Onboard, solar panels, wind turbines, and hydrogen would provide renewable energy for a full city, including hospitals, restaurants, libraries, universities, and sports stadiums.
Sounds like fun, huh? Driving down the road with an entire city. A football stadium with State U. and Cross-State U. battling it out at 65 MPH. Ordering at the drive-thru while the drive-thru is tooling down the Interstate. That'd be a blast.

Only, the whole solar panels and wind turbines seems kinda hippie to me. But, even hippies have to dream.

Now we know what hippies dream about: becoming rednecks.

22 comments:

  1. The "floating city" idea has much greater merit. Now, who's with me?

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  2. Do the numbers add up?

    ". . . the length of five football fields . . .

    " . . . a full city, including hospitals, restaurants, libraries, universities, and sports stadiums."

    The snippet didn't mention its width, but those five things up (one of each, not plurals) lengthwise would pretty much take up the five football fields, no?

    .....

    If I put an average cruise ship on treads, would I be hailed as an architectural genius?

    ....

    What sort of terrain do they propose driving over? Certainly, some sort of prepared and reinforced surface, right?

    ...

    On the other hand, there is a whole fun side to the idea, too, as you pointed out.

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  3. Ok, great idea, Senor Grande Architect.

    Just one thing...say, where do you find the roads big enough to handle your gooberlicious double-wide city-rod?
    One more. Who pays the parking tickets when you stop that mutha?

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  4. ... Drive it to New York or LA in time to vote in elections. . . .

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  5. I don't want to be anywhere near it when they empty the waste tanks.

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  6. {humming:}

    "I went back to Ohio, but my city was gone . . "

    - The Pretenders

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  7. Or maybe it's controlled by a robot computer pusher, looking for UK robots to sell its supply of urine to.

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  8. "I shoulda taken a left turn with Albequerque."

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  9. "Yes. We'd like 2,143 Quarter Pounders, 487 Big Macs, 3,86 large fries, 2,827 Happy Meals, 754 fish sandwhiches, 1,627 Cokes, 1,296 diet Cokes, 783 root beers and 1 Mr. Pibb."

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  10. What happens when Mobile Detroit version 2 rolls up next to a responsible city? "Here comes the neighborhood" and "There goes the neighborhood" all at the same time.

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  11. It better have enough cup holders.

    Are you allowed to text while it drives?

    Is it covered by Geico or Liberty Mutual?

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  12. So now the slums come to you!

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  13. are there any figures on what the MPGe will be? Are all figures for city driving? What is the top speed? Once the second one is built, can we expect races?

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  14. The Norwegians have something close in their world boat http://aboardtheworld.com/ I just checked their 3 year itinerary...looks like they have avoided the Somali Coast area.

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  15. The Norwegians? Them folks in Norwegia can come up with some interesting stuff, no? But, didn't The Thing get them before Kurt Russell kicked its butt?

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  16. Google already lists about a trillion cities that call themselves "A City On The Move." Copyright wars to follow.

    Stationary city to rolling city: "This town ain't big enough fer the two of us."

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  17. So do you have to have local elections to decide where to go next? What if they don't want you there? I am guessing that it makes commuting to work in another city a bit of a challenge not to mention getting your car off the road and up on top of that thing. Do you have to pay property tax or a wheel tax...maybe both? Is the "slum" housing built in and around the superstructure supporting the topside gated communities? If you don't like the laws in one state it sure makes moving your town across the boarder much simpler. How do you license that thing? This just seems like a bad idea all around.

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  18. Hippies wanting to be Rednecks...
    Could happen, but the testicular implants make it unlikely.

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  19. That is the same concept of Archigram's Moving Cities, from the sixties. Nothing new.

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  20. Jimmy says:
    November 13th, 2013 at 10:07 am

    The “floating city” idea has much greater merit. Now, who’s with me?

    Me for one.

    While the floating city is being designed with the proper mix of ethical government (small)
    education
    work/leisure
    science for power generation and waste management.
    Defense - If they get the rest of it working. They will have something That needs to be defended.
    Not saying the plans could not be shared between like minded groups

    The next phase would be the underwater city

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  21. […] architect has designed a 600-foot-tall “city on wheels” that would let an urban population just roll down the […]

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